Kelly spoke of dying in the woods

Picture: REUTERSBritish diplomat David Boucher leaves the Royal Courts of Justice after giving evidence to the Hutton Inquiry into the death of government weapons expert Dr David Kelly.

British weapons expert David Kelly predicted he would be "found dead in the woods" five months before he apparently committed suicide in a forested area, an inquiry into his death has been told.

A senior British diplomat, David Boucher, told the Hutton inquiry that Dr Kelly had predicted his own death if Britain invaded Iraq, in a conversation with him in February, about a month before the war started.

Mr Boucher, Britain's permanent representative to the UN Conference on Disarmament, said that, at the time, he believed Dr Kelly was concerned about being seen as a "liar" by Iraqi contacts, whom he had encouraged to co-operate with UN weapons inspectors before the war.

"I thought he might have meant that he was at risk of being attacked by the Iraqis in some way," Mr Boucher said. But, after Dr Kelly's death, he realised the scientist "may have been thinking on different lines".

Dr Kelly's body was found in a wood near his Oxfordshire home in July, after he had been revealed as the source of a BBC report that alleged Prime Minister Tony Blair's office had "sexed up" last September's pre-war Iraqi weapons dossier. He had apparently slashed his wrists.

His comments to Mr Boucher show how much strain he felt.

Mr Blair is expected to become only the second British prime minister to appear before a judicial inquiry when he gives evidence next Thursday.

He will be asked about his role in the Government's naming of Dr Kelly, a top chemical and biological weapons expert.

The Kelly affair has sent voters' trust in the Blair Government to record lows.

Downing Street's chief spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, has denied the allegation by BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan that his office inserted the claim into the dossier that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction could be deployed within 45 minutes.

I thought he might have meant that he was at risk of being attacked by the Iraqis. DAVID BOUCHER, British diplomat

During Mr Boucher's unexpected appearance, the inquiry was shown an e-mail he sent on August 5 to senior Foreign Office official, Patrick Lamb, in which he revealed his conversation with Dr Kelly. "I asked what would happen then (if Britain invaded Iraq) and he replied in a throw-away line he would probably be found dead in the woods," Mr Boucher wrote.

"I did not think much of this at the time, taking it to be a hint that the Iraqis might try and take revenge against him... I now see that may have been thinking on rather different lines."

Mr Boucher said Dr Kelly felt that British intelligence services had come under pressure to produce a "robust" dossier on Iraq's weapons program to assist in Mr Blair's case for war.

Earlier, Sunday Times journalist Nick Rufford told the inquiry that Dr Kelly had felt he had been "put through the wringer" by the Defence Minister, after telling his bosses that he had spoken to Gilligan.

When he asked if Gilligan had quoted him accurately, Dr Kelly replied: "I talked to him about factual stuff, the rest is bullshit."